


Remember This

by Erisabesu (ErisabesuFic)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, Romance, sns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 01:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20958245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErisabesuFic/pseuds/Erisabesu
Summary: “Sasuke doesn’t remember where he picked up the habit.”  [2007.06.29]





	Remember This

**“Remember This”**

♦

Sasuke doesn’t remember where he picked up the habit. Maybe it’s the salt. Maybe it’s the aftertaste of a roasting flame and blackened shells, something in his genetic predisposition satisfied by an aroma of smoke and spice. Maybe it’s the relaxation from incessant gnawing. There is calm in repetition, in the steady rhythm of an opening and closing hinge.

He can’t tell what Naruto thinks about it, if he’s ever noticed. Sasuke keeps one bag rolled up in the same pocket of his knapsack, two more unopened in the same kitchen cabinet, day after day, and far away from any of the Ramen polluting their cupboards. If there’s something of Naruto’s that irritates him to no end, aside from the proportion of their garbage that is Styrofoam, it’s the smears of toothpaste ringing the bathroom sink, fat globs that fall off the toothbrush before the moron can manage to get it into his mouth. Sasuke shivers, just thinking about it.

But if there’s something he likes–and when the hell he learned to like _anything_ in his nineteen years of life is yet another mystery–it’s the flat end of the roof of their building, hanging off the side like a second cousin twice removed.

Twelve stories up feels just about right, where the sky opens wide in an oppressive vastness of black and speckles, shadow and refraction. Sometimes it’s the only way to wind down from a mission, turning the self into something infinitesimal by comparison. The sky helps him forget.

Naruto climbs up there too more often than not. Sasuke doesn’t really mind; it’s a neutral spot where they can lie elbow to elbow, Naruto narrating and Sasuke bringing roasted, unshelled sunflower seeds to his mouth in a single file line. Under the weight of a starlit sky, he can forget that Naruto forgot to clean the sink before he left that morning, and he can forget how Naruto sometimes sleepwalks into his room in the hours before dawn because it’s on the same side of the building as the apartment he grew up in.

But nothing, _nothing_ can make him forget the night things changed.

♦

“Hey, can I have some?” Naruto turns to him, brows arched high in question.

There doesn’t seem to be any harm in it. Sasuke shrugs, and makes the first mistake by angling the bag’s opening towards the waiting hand.

Predictably, Naruto puts ten in his mouth at once. Sasuke lets him chew it all and work out on his own that the shells aren’t meant to be eaten.

♦

The first thing Sasuke does with his new ANBU uniform is modify the design of the mask.

He borrows a stationary grinder from Morino Ibiki and gently presses the ceramic into the spinning sandpaper belt to shorten the lowest curve. He disregards Morino’s presence in the toolroom doorway, cigarette resting between scarred lips. Sasuke takes his time, careful not to shorten it too far, holding the mask to his face in gloved hands until it fits.

He’s not breaking any rules by exposing his mouth. Truly, he doesn’t _need_ the mask to be shorter in order to complete successful missions, it’s just a matter of taste. There’s also the fact that he possesses the strongest fire jutsus in all of Konoha; Morino Ibiki, and the Hokage for that matter, have no right to complain, and if either of them does, he’ll simply remind them of a certain saying: “The eyes are the windows to the soul.”

The eyes. Not the lips. For an Uchiha, the saying is certainly true.

His eyes will stay covered.

Morino leaves before the mask is finished, satisfied enough by his observations to leave Sasuke alone to his task. Sasuke stays late to finish it by hand, sanding the newly honed edges until they’re smooth as the flat of Kusanagi’s blade.

He’ll still have to go on regular missions, but he doesn’t really mind. It’ll make it easier to keep the secret from Naruto until he too has made the Corps. Sasuke predicts it won’t be too much longer now, anyways.

When the mask is perfect, Sasuke sponges off the fine powder of dust, then brushes a layer of sealant over both inside and outside. He balances it on a hook to dry, and wonders what Naruto’s second element will turn out to be–and if it’ll end up being one more thing that they share, willing or not.

♦

Without a word, and only a few minutes after his arrival, Naruto gets up and climbs down from the roof. Sasuke frowns, not bothered, really, but… It’s only the second time Naruto’s wanted to share his snack, and Sasuke worries a seed between his teeth, and then another, and then three more before Naruto returns with something that gleams. He sets it down at their feet, a shallow bowl from the kitchen normally used for pickles.

“Now we’ve got something to aim for,” Naruto grins, laughing, and settles back down beside him to thrust his eager hand back into the bag.

Sasuke watches him stuff a handful of seeds into his mouth and work on them, noisily, before spitting the shells in a dramatic arc. Six out of ten make it in. Naruto eats another handful, repeating the process; Sasuke continues in his preferred fashion and lands both halves of every shell inside the bowl’s rim.

It shouldn’t feel different, the two of them out here this time, but it does. And he can’t quite put his finger on _why_.

♦

Sasuke’s other habit develops outside of his control in the first three months of being Naruto’s roommate.

The simple click of a switch, and the following muted grumble of the ventilation fan in the bathroom calls him from slumber no matter how late at night he managed to get to bed. The only thing that _should_ wake him is the call of duty; Sasuke takes his sleep more seriously than most. But Naruto’s hyper-metabolism means a mid-night trip to take a piss. And Naruto’s tendency to sleep walk into the wrong bedroom means that Sasuke’s eyes open at the first clicking sound and slide over to the answering glimmer of light coming under the door from the hallway, reflexes ready.

If Naruto’s footsteps turn to the right after he shuts off the light, Sasuke closes his eyes and goes back to sleep. If Naruto’s footsteps turn to the left…

Sasuke watches the knob turn, and the door to his room open, Naruto’s silhouette coming through the doorway and stumbling towards the bed, one hand reaching out. Sasuke slips out from under the sheets as Naruto slips into them and folds the pillow under his head like he lives there.

Sometimes, Sasuke sits in his desk chair and watches Naruto’s breathing even out and then resonate with open-mouthed snores before going into Naruto’s room and stealing all his blankets for a night spent curled up on the scruffy couch cluttering up their sitting room. It’s more comfortable than the floor, so he bears it, but it’s an eyesore he’d rather not have in their place at all, except that Naruto loves it so much.

In the morning, as soon as the click of the bathroom light switch wakes him for the second time, Sasuke hides all the evidence, like nothing ever happened.

Naruto doesn’t ever seem to remember anyway.

♦

Naruto comes into his second element by accident, in the midst of the deciding battle of their mission.

Sasuke is momentarily dumfounded–along with everyone else, Naruto included–at the amount of water that surges up from the rocky ground underneath Naruto’s hands in a climate where such a feat should be near-impossible. The geysers shoot straight up in the air, breaking up the terrain quicker than an earthquake and disrupting all combat to an awkward, panicked standstill.

The shock has all of them looking up into the clear blue sky and shielding their eyes from the refracted sunbeams and the swirling spray pelting the land in all directions; Sasuke’s stomach flips at the unexpected bursts of color that accompany the phenomenon in a glory even the most calloused ninja would appreciate–until Naruto’s chakra wavers and the water begins to recede.

There’s no use in having a water affinity if the user hasn’t yet mastered control.

Sasuke understands full well what it’s like to stumble upon an unexpected ability–but they can’t afford to waste the opportunity presented by the distraction. Someone has to end this battle, _now_.

He moves in an instant, collecting his breath and releasing his maximum _Great Dragon Fire_ jutsu up through the center of Naruto’s geysers. The enormous roaring Dragons coil each other and burn the water into an updraft of steam, heating the air above and scarring the sky with ash and smoke. The reaction is immediate, heavy cumulonimbus clouds swelling and roiling across the heavens in a blanket of darkness and wet. He knows what’s coming is a bit of an overkill… but there are so few chances for him to really let loose he just can’t resist–not when Naruto set him up so well by manifesting water so far above sea level.

A crack of thunder makes Sakura jump–but it helps spring her into action, too. She dashes across the enemy’s front lines and looses a string of kunai wrapped in exploding tags, then dances backward out of the way as they pop one by one in the makings of a perimeter brushfire. The fires that don’t fizzle under the increasing rain send black smoke upward to be sucked into the sky, an envoy of particles to help the thunderheads form thick and solid.

Sasuke fires his own exploding tags straight up, then follows with an Uchiha-signature fireball jutsu to set the thunderclouds just over the edge, exactly where he wants them. His hair sticks messily to his face from the combination of rainfall and Naruto’s weakening geysers, but he pays it no mind and focuses instead on the tingle of electricity jumping between his bandaged fingertips and wriggling up his left arm in preparation.

The high altitude of their enemy’s base makes everything happen so much quicker than usual. Sasuke sprints to the center of a granite crag for the best footing, then calls on his stores of electricity to form his body into a conducting rod. Another deafening boom of thunder splits the sky in dramatic accompaniment to the lightning bolt that strikes and follows Sasuke’s guiding hand in the ferocious howl of the _Kirin_—

The only word for what follows is _obliteration_.

Not a single brick, not a single concrete pillar of the base remains in place afterwards. A large part of the mountain is only so much rubble; even the rain stops, leaving behind only a wispy mist to curl with the smoke of Sakura’s quenched brushfire. Sasuke catches his breath, and checks from his vantage point that both Naruto and Sakura are alive and safe.

Sakura meets his eyes and nods, scrambling to her feet and checking for any survivors, even though she won’t save them. Not on this mission, anyways. Their orders were clear, even though they knew at the outset that they’d be outnumbered fifteen to one. Nobody could have survived such a blast, so he isn’t worried for her safety. He turns in the opposite direction.

Naruto’s orange jacket catches his eye first, tossed onto the ground carelessly. Sasuke finds the shinobi who belongs to it sitting with his back propped against a boulder, chest heaving with every breath and two stormy blue eyes smoldering to match the angry snarl of his lips. Sasuke’s brows furrow, taking in the soaked shirt under Naruto’s armor vest, and the flushed color of his skin. It could just be rainwater… but Sasuke doesn’t think so. The white patterns snaking overtop the surface of Naruto’s shirt as it dries means he’s sweating too much too fast.

Sasuke reaches forward, but Naruto slaps his hand away. Sasuke switches hands, and manages to smear the pads of his fingers over Naruto’s burning forehead before a tanned fist comes snapping for his chin. It’s the second mistake he makes, though he doesn’t know it yet.

“I think you have a fever,” Sasuke scolds him, annoyed. “You should let me check.”

“I’m fine,” Naruto continues to glare. He also continues to have trouble breathing, though this doesn’t stop him from lumbering to his feet. Sasuke clenches a fist to keep from knocking him unconscious until Sakura can do something for him.

“You’re in shock, Naruto,” Sasuke says, even though he’s being ignored. “It can happen when you use elemental–”

“–Fuck you,” Naruto flicks him off, then picks up his coat and half-staggers away back down the mountain, grumbling. “Fuckin’ _show-off_.”

Sasuke manages to bite back a testicle-withering retort, then wonders why the hell he should bother to spare the idiot what he deserves. Naruto doesn’t realize how amazing it is–he is–for being able to do more than blink and pass out.

“Fuck you too, moron,” he seethes between his teeth.

Sasuke flexes his sore arm while waiting for Sakura to confirm that the area is clear, then digs in his small supply pouch, his body already craving a particular replenishment. He freezes the moment the seeds touch his tongue. His mouth salivates and he swallows several times, trying to identify the change in taste. He spits out the shells, then brings his fingers back to his lips and _there_ it is, a tang unlike anything he’s ever tasted.

Carefully, he licks the whorls of his index fingerprint clean, and then the next, intoxicated enough by the mixture of salts and spices that he closes both eyes. It could be the chance moment of contact with Naruto’s chakra-charged sweat. Or it could be the lingering sparks of lightning from an internal source, though a voice in the back of his head points out that it’s the _wrong_ hand for that… but by then Sasuke’s no longer listening.

Before Sakura finishes up and returns to his side, Sasuke sucks every last trace off his skin.

Not like it means anything.

♦

The summer night is clear and cool. Sasuke takes his time coming back from the store, the usual items hanging off his wrist in a sack, both hands stuffed into his pockets. He’s thinking about something mundane, like what to make for dinner, or whether Naruto remembered to take out the trash that morning, when he hears his roommate’s voice raised in laughter.

The street is pretty crowded, but Naruto’s distinctive timbre cuts across everything else and registers, familiar, in Sasuke’s ears. He looks towards the noise, searching for something physical connected to it. He stops at the corner of the nearby intersection and moves out of the flow of pedestrians to peer around the edge of the building. Two shinobi are there, seated on a park bench under a street lamp.

Naruto’s arms are tucked behind his head, feet splayed out into the sidewalk. Sasuke’s brow tightens at the sight of his companion, more an instinctual response than a response to anything the guy is doing right then, always so formal and proper.

Sai shifts in his spot and says something to Naruto that Sasuke can’t quite hear.

Naruto shrugs, stretching his arms upward and then folding them across his slouched stomach. “Nah. I mean, I don’t really want to move right now, y’know? I’ve got a good place.”

Sai tilts his head, asking another question.

“Sasuke?” Naruto pauses, “No, I don’t think he’d mind. It’s not like we have some written agreement or something. But I just don’t want to move right now, too much hassle. Besides, I’m sure there’s other people you can try.”

Sai doesn’t look too happy with this response. Sasuke can’t help but smirk. Then Sai asks something else, something that makes Naruto fidget and frown, and then finally, scowl.

“I don’t know…” Naruto says after a while, running tan fingers through the back of his hair. Sai doesn’t say anything either, for a moment. Both of them are quiet and still, waiting on the rest of Naruto’s answer.

“Have you ever seen him fight?” Naruto asks Sai, to both their surprise.

Sai thinks about this, then shakes his head.

“Heh,” Naruto chuckles, eyes intense. “It’s freakin’ amazing. He can do things with his sword that just–” Naruto shakes his head. “So awesome.”

Sasuke’s heartbeat falters out of step, like a kid whose pants have caught him around the ankles.

“And he’s not just a sword fighter,” Naruto continues. “He can do just about anything. It’s _sick_. Half the time I just want to wring his neck for existing, but…” Naruto shrugs, crossing his arms and sliding back down on the bench so that Sasuke has a clear snapshot of his profile. “It pulls me, too. It makes me want to work harder, train faster, so that just _once_ maybe I’d be the one to surprise him when we’re on a mission. Throw him off his game once in a while.”

Sai interjects something at this point, lifting one hand in a graceful gesture that Naruto would never be able to duplicate.

“No, of course not. I just… I don’t know how to explain,” Naruto sighs, still pensive.

Sai turns even closer to Naruto, apparently waiting for Naruto to gather his thoughts. Naruto also turns towards Sai–Sasuke ducks backward, lest Naruto see him across the street. But he can still hear clearly.

“Sasuke’s not all that great, I guess, when he’s not on a mission. I mean, he’s the kind of guy who won’t ever say anything, whose only acknowledgement is letting you sit with him on the roof and eat sunflower seeds, for crying out loud.”

Sasuke goes very, very still.

“But… I guess I like that kind of guy. I like that kind of guy a lot.” Naruto laughs. “Does that make any sense?”

♦

Sasuke can remember exactly when Naruto bought the couch; they weren’t even thirteen yet. He remembers hating it even back then, so clunky and cheap looking, the proportions of the design all wrong for the pattern on the fabric, a textured tan-on-tan that looked like the whole thing was made from boiled lentils. With boiled lentils inside.

The only good quality is the length. On the nights he sleeps on it, he barely has to bend at the knee to fit adequately, though it still annoys him. How Naruto kept it in one piece this long Sasuke can’t even imagine.

Still, it’s all the armor he’s got tonight. Sasuke pulls their low table closer and spreads out all his weapons for sharpening, taking over the living room and setting hard to work about thirty seconds before Naruto comes in, holding a can from a vending machine. Naruto starts when he sees him, then closes the door behind him.

“You’re not on the roof?” he asks. “I thought for sure you’d be up there.”

“Does it matter?” Sasuke replies, not looking up.

“Er, no…” Naruto comes over to the table. “But it’s such a nice night, it’s a shame to miss out.”

“I’m not stopping you.”

Sasuke wipes the side of the kunai with a cloth, checking the edge. He can see Naruto’s feet hesitating on the other side of the table. Sasuke turns the weapon over and begins anew. Naruto couldn’t possibly watch him sharpen all ninety-three of the first batch…

“Well maybe I’ll just catch that new show on TV,” Naruto shrugs, disappearing into the kitchen and returning without the can.

Sasuke doesn’t twitch–the notorious control of an ANBU assassin–when Naruto sits on the floor beside him, back against the sagging arm of the couch and remote control in his hand. The sound comes on too loud, and Naruto panics trying to find the volume control, punching the keypad with his thumb until the voices and music are more reasonable; he settles in and surfs the channels.

Sasuke counts his breaths, measuring them into even circles of calm between Naruto’s inevitable interruptions. Laughter at witty sitcom dialogue. _One, two, three, four, five._ Changing his position and bumping the table. _One, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty._ Turning to see if he’d seen that sports news re-play and brushing warm knuckles along his shin–

“I’ll finish the rest in the morning,” Sasuke mutters, rising from the couch, weapon and cloth still in his hand. He just can’t sit there anymore.

“Hey, whoa,” Naruto starts to get up.

“Goodnight,” Sasuke says, making his escape while Naruto is still too confused to try and follow him. Not that he _would_. They don’t do things like that, follow each other into their rooms when a full-blown fight hasn’t been started and there aren’t any shouts or fists flying through the walls. This is… different. And weird.

And needs to stop.

Sasuke makes it to his room and shuts the door. He stands there, staring at the knob.

Naruto makes no further sounds from the living room, the TV still going strong. Sasuke leans his forehead into the door, then turns the lock.

♦

His eyes flash open at the click of the bathroom light switch.

Then he remembers the lock on his door, and closes them, keeping his ears trained for the noise of Naruto’s feet just in case. He pulls the covers up to his chin, trying to relax.

The doorknob jiggles and Sasuke jerks, holding his breath. It jiggles again, more forcefully. He slowly calls the Sharingan into his eyes and watches the door, annoyed at the anxiety coiling his muscles tight. _It’s just his moronic roommate. Nothing to worry about._

“Hey, what–” Naruto’s voice is groggy from sleep. “What the…” He jiggles the knob again. Then he pounds with his fist. “HEY!”

Sasuke retrieves his one weapon from under his pillow. Hopefully he won’t have to use it.

“Sasuke, what the hell?!” Naruto pounds with both fists now.

“What do you want?” Sasuke shouts back, hoping he sounds irritated rather than nervous.

“Why the hell is your door locked?” Naruto yells, just as irritated. “Let me in!”

Sasuke’s jaw drops. “_Why should I_?”

“Just let me in!” Naruto repeats, still banging on the door.

“Shut up and go back to sleep!” Sasuke scolds him. “You’ll wake the neighbors!”

“Then let me in, you asshole! I just want to talk to you!”

“NO!” Sasuke gets up to crouch on his mattress.

“Fine! You asked for it!”

Sasuke listens to Naruto’s feet tromp down the hall and towards the front of their apartment.

“I’m going to eat ALL your sunflower seeds if you don’t come out here!”

Sasuke’s body freezes in horror, mouth agape. The cabinet door creaks open and slams shut.

“And don’t think I don’t know where you keep them–I’ve got all three bags right here, and they won’t last long!”

It takes the audible ripping of the first bag before Sasuke can snap out of it and fly out of his room. He catches Naruto by the sofa, one bag on top of the neglected pile of weapons, another under his armpit. The last he has in his hands, or really _hand_–since he’s busy shoving a giant fistful of seeds into his big mouth.

Sasuke springs forward and snatches the bag from his hands. Naruto spins and spits out the seeds in defense–probably not a planned move–while his arm clamps tight to his side in protection of the second bag. Sasuke retrieves the third bag and holds them tight, disregarding the seeds that stick to his naked torso from Naruto’s spit and lunging after the last of the bags. Naruto makes a wild leap to the side–they both grab hold–the bag tears in a fantastic spray of seeds all over the room.

“What the _HELL_ is your problem!” Sasuke roars, before the last of the seeds have finished plinking on the hard floorboards, shaking from anger and frustration.

“What the hell is _your_ problem!” Naruto roars back. “You’ve never locked your door on me, never!”

“So what?” Sasuke bares his teeth. “Serves you right you fuckin’ moron!”

“I don’t get you!” Naruto flails an arm, and Sasuke snaps.

He takes two steps and aims to punch him in the face. “I told you _never_ to touch my stuff!”

Naruto dodges, then slips on the seeds underfoot and crashes to the ground. He winces but then shoves the coffee table into Sasuke’s leg and then _he_ falls too–

And then they’re wrestling, a tangle of snarls and limbs and childish taunts and name-calling. The table shoots another few feet away, spilling shuriken onto the floor amid the seeds. Sasuke can’t remember when last they fought like this, pulling hair and banging knees and elbows into ribs and skulls, resorting to base immaturity to try and get the upper hand.

Naruto’s words come out in-between erratic grunts: “Fuck – you – for – ignoring – me! _Asshole_!”

Sasuke grits his teeth: “Fuck – you – first – for – sleepwalking! _Ultimate moron!_”

Naruto somehow twists his arm enough to give him pause. “Oh yeah?” he pants with effort. “You sleep in my bed too, fucker.”

“Do not!” Sasuke bucks away from him, horrified and angered. “I sleep on the couch!”

Naruto lets go to glare. “Then why do all my blankets smell like _you_, huh?”

“What else am I supposed to use then, if you’ve got mine?” Sasuke spits.

Naruto stills above him, blue eyes twitching along with the speed of his thoughts–which says something about his level of confusion. Sasuke breaks from the hold and leans against the couch out of arm’s reach, breathing hard. He rolls his eyes; they’re both rather pitiful, seeds stuck to their half-naked bodies, the room trashed.

“You don’t…”

Sasuke glances over when Naruto trails off; he looks troubled.

“You really don’t sleep in my bed?”

Sasuke shakes his head. “No.”

Naruto looks down at the floor, then scratches the back of his neck. He leaves the room after one word. “Sorry.”

Sasuke hears the door to Naruto’s bedroom open and shut.

♦

The apartment is much less appealing once Naruto has moved out, which comes as somewhat of a surprise. Naruto explains that Sai is in need of a roommate. Sasuke doesn’t feel like it’s his place to object; Naruto can make his own independent decisions.

What he does object to is the bald echo of even the tiniest noise in the empty living space–thank god Naruto took that awful couch with him–and the unmarred gleam of the bathroom sink, mocking him.

Still, he has little choice but to continue on, most of his habits still locked in place. His cabinet now has an excess of sunflower seeds that nobody but him can get into. And he can cook lobster before his ANBU missions as normal, but this time without any distractions or begging or unnecessary whines of hunger.

Sasuke fires up the grill and gets things started to charge up his internal battery. A lightning affinity is rather different, so he’s learned over the years. His jutsus work best when his system has the right elements inside it, something he replenishes constantly–which might be a simpler explanation to his sunflower seed compulsion than anything else, as they provide him with a potent source of copper and zinc. Lobster, too, has these essential minerals in abundance.

Only one thing is missing: _acid_.

Sasuke gets out the cutting board and slices three lemons into juicy wedges, the delicious scent permeating the kitchen and beyond. He brings one wedge to his mouth and bites. Lemons, he marvels, are the only fruits that bite back. How appropriate.

He sucks it dry, then drops four more wedges into his tea and waits for the grill to be ready. Maybe he’ll go on the roof tonight.

It’s not like he hasn’t done it alone before. It just seems so… _lame_.

But how else can he forget–forget it all–if not under the vastness of the night sky?

♦

Sasuke’s on his way home from the Hokage tower when he senses Naruto’s presence nearby. He takes a moment to decide what to do about it, then straightens his shoulders and finds his way to Naruto’s new street and then his new building. He stops, looking up the side, and calculates.

Since he doesn’t sense anyone else up there, he sets his chin and climbs up the wall, minding the potted plants and air-conditioners in the open windows. He peers over the top of the fire escape. Naruto is there, sprawled out on the lumpy tiles and eating something from a bag–but the logo doesn’t look right. Sasuke climbs forward for a better look, meeting Naruto’s eyes without expression and taking a seat beside him.

“Pistachios?” he asks, unable to help the curiosity.

“Try some,” Naruto angles the bag towards him, spitting a shell from his mouth straight into the top of a soda can by his feet. Sasuke raises an eyebrow–he’s been practicing. Naruto shoots the other half of the shell with the exact same accuracy.

Sasuke takes three pistachios in his hand and stretches out. The first taste makes him frown; he’s used to less sweetness and more of a smoky-salt taste, but they’re not bad. He eats the nut inside, marking the presence of zinc and copper, but not nearly the same levels he’s used to. He finishes in silence, spitting the shells into the soda can, though one hits the edge of the small hole and bounces off the rim.

“How do you like them?” Naruto asks.

Sasuke shrugs, eyes up on the stars. “It’s not the same,” he says, reaching his hand out towards the bag and coming in contact with Naruto’s fingers–

Naruto grabs hold.

“You’re right. It’s not the same,” Naruto repeats, squeezing. Sasuke feels granules of salt between their palms, rubbing where their fingers move for a better grip, a tighter fit.

“Yeah,” he says. But he’s not talking about pistachios anymore. And neither is Naruto.

♦

A week later, Naruto shows up at his door, unexpectedly.

Sasuke stands there and looks at him, a steaming mug of tea complete with several lemon wedges bobbing at the surface in his hand. He puts this down on the nearest bookshelf, wary of Naruto’s inherent unpredictability.

“What are you doing here?”

“I … don’t suppose I could maybe move back in?” Naruto grins, sheepish, his hand scratching his neck in unmistakable embarrassment.

Sasuke’s brow furrows. “What happened?”

“Well…” Naruto hedges, trying to play it off. “It’s not really important, Sai just got unreasonably upset about something silly, like toothpaste in the sink or something…” He laughs, nervous.

Sasuke’s lip twitches, though he hopes it looks more ominous than amused. He waits until he can speak without chuckling, which has the added bonus of making Naruto fret in the entryway.

Sasuke clears his throat. “You better not bring back that _couch_,” he warns, meaning it.

Naruto grins, laughing. He moves back in the next day, bringing the usual chaos and disruptions with him, although finally everything seems to be normal. Well, except for one thing. On Sasuke’s request, they switch bedrooms. He figures it’ll make things easier, and start them out on the right foot. And when Naruto asks him to help unpack, Sasuke shrugs and complies.

Naruto pretends to be unaware of the items in the box Sasuke opens in the living room, though from the nervous looks and feigned nonchalance he’s sure Naruto let him find it on purpose. Sasuke brushes his fingers over the lacquered surface of the porcelain mask, not surprised at all; the promotion was bound to happen sooner or later, now that Naruto meets the second qualification. Sasuke smirks, and carries the box to Naruto’s room. He puts the mask in one of the top drawers, an acknowledgement for Naruto to find later.

The only real surprise comes two nights later, when _Sasuke_ is the one who forgets their new living arrangements and stumbles into Naruto’s bed in the middle of the night.

Nothing’s been the same since.

♦

The first time he and Naruto kiss, Sasuke realizes that Naruto’s second elemental affinity could never have been _fire_.

He’d thought it possible, considering the Ninetails Naruto carries within him, or the fury of his passions, the heat of his convictions. So much about Naruto glows from the first spark. But fire is something Sasuke has known his whole life, the way it scalds the lungs when uncontrolled, the way it passes through the lips in a compressed burst–fire isn’t something that can hurt him, because it’s already a part of his makeup.

Naruto’s kisses _hurt_. They start out in a trickle, lips pressing his neck, earlobe, cheek, eyelid, forehead, then lips pressing lips; the trickle becomes a brook as their mouths and tongues learn to move and breathe together, a streaming flow of sensation unlike anything Sasuke can try to come to terms with. The water pulls him along and then rolls him under, _deep_, terrifying, and beautiful, every gasp and swallow of air an extreme effort–and Sasuke realizes his third, and last mistake.

Whoever said the eyes are the windows to the soul has never been kissed like _this_.

Through the contact of their mouths Sasuke can taste the saltwater edges of Naruto’s soul, can feel the blaze of his own soul straining against the back of his tongue in the attempt to merge beyond the physical.

Naruto’s hands and body immerse and then drown all of him until he writhes in the fear that the very last ember inside, the one he’s held since birth–the one that marks him _Uchiha_–will fizzle into nothing. He’s frantic to keep that from happening, pushing Naruto away from him where they’re nestled on that damn couch of his, and accidentally sparking white electricity over their wet tongues in his panic. Naruto hisses in pain–

Then the idiot seems to understand and everything changes.

The weight of passion lifts from Sasuke’s ribs, all sense of water sluicing away to be replaced by something warm and sultry, something tropical that stokes and provokes him at the core of his being all over again. It’s still Naruto, it’s still Naruto’s kisses doing it to him, but the warmth between them now grows exponentially, each panting breath urging the fire inside him to burn hotter and hotter, every nerve ending whipped into a delicious, near-violent frenzy until both of them are consumed as a whole.

The couch doesn’t survive.

Sasuke can’t say he’s sorry, afterwards. His body aches, his throat aches, all of him ragged and raw from their activities, and still–one touch of Naruto’s finger between his shoulder blades and down his spine is enough for him to want it all again. He arches closer to Naruto’s neck and licks the salt of his skin, so much better than he remembers from that one time, so much more addicting in its purity, so much more satisfying knowing that he, Sasuke, brought it to the surface. Naruto shudders from the attention, but can hardly stand to wait much longer than Sasuke can, which isn’t long at all.

They’ve both waited long enough.

And that’s something he’ll never forget.

—

Ω


End file.
